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Letters to the Editor | June 18, 2024

Inquirer readers on Philadelphia contrasts, media coverage of Donald Trump, and the former president's bid for absolute immunity.

The Philadelphia Land Bank was created to help the city move its vacant land into productive use and acquire abandoned private land. Neglected properties can draw illegal dumping and littering, as seen along 29th Street in Strawberry Mansion.
The Philadelphia Land Bank was created to help the city move its vacant land into productive use and acquire abandoned private land. Neglected properties can draw illegal dumping and littering, as seen along 29th Street in Strawberry Mansion.Read moreTyger Williams / Staff Photographer
    by Letters to the Editor, For The Inquirer
    Published 

High contrast

Much of what I read in my beloved Inquirer brings me joy: great sports writing, wonderful articles about food, and I love Peter Dobrin’s commentaries on the music scene in and around Philadelphia. Yet, much of what I read also makes me furious, angry, and terribly sad. Sunday’s edition just made me crazy: On the front page of the Real Estate section, there is an article regarding Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s plan to fix the Land Bank. The article is accompanied by a dreadful and all-too-common image of crumbling rowhouses and a park filled with trash. Appearing directly below it? A half-page advertisement for a seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom extravaganza of a home (Palace? Monument to excess? Cozy little retreat?) that can be had for just under $12 million.

Andrea Mitnick, Wallingford

Critical imbalance

The Inquirer may feel the need to balance pro and con coverage of the presidential candidates. But that is not what is happening with all of the MAGA-supporting outlets. The end result is that Donald Trump gets most of the coverage. Why print something like, “They ‘Abandoned Biden’ at the polls; what now?” What about a “Trump abandons Ukraine and NATO and its repercussions” article? Why doesn’t The Inquirer go to Ukrainian churches to get their stories? What happens to U.S. debt when Trump’s isolationist policies affect foreign trust, and the dollar is replaced as the global currency? Where are all of these other counterstances? The so-called mainstream media is anti-Biden as well because of its hyper-exuberance with Trump’s behavior, giving him and his many fringes most of the space, killing Biden’s reelection via death by a thousand cuts. Please stop with the one-sided stories.

Hank Schrandt, Newtown

Madness lies

Nearing retirement from 45-plus years of psychoanalytic practice, I could have imagined nothing could still surprise me. Still, I live in a world where an ex-president is arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court for absolute immunity against all prosecution and for all actions committed, at least during his presidency. Never mind, for the moment, the fact that this would bring our country back to the age of monarchs, before Oliver Cromwell first imagined that a king could be held culpable for his actions against the state.

Never mind all that and no one being above the law. I tend, rather, in my less reasonable moments to be fascinated about just how that would work. The justices give immunity to Donald Trump and then, perchance, Joe Biden — with absolute immunity — gathers up the entire MAGA enterprise for a lengthy stay at Gitmo, or worse. Can it be that once upon a time we elected a man president who lacks the foresight to imagine that another president, under conditions of absolute immunity, could act against him with both impunity and immunity? Apparently, we have. I once held strong to the belief that while I might work in a mental hospital, I got to go home at night. I no longer hold to that fantasy.

Howard H. Covitz, Elkins Park, hhcovitz@aol.com

Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 200 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.